Lawyers brand legal aid reform threat to justice

Protests outside the Houses of Paliament against proposed changes to legal aid.

Next Tuesday solicitors and barristers will mark the end of a Government consultation when they hold a minute’s silence outside magistrates’ and crown courts.

The reforms – branded “mind-bogglingly ridiculous” by one lawyer – are intended to slice £220m from the £1.1bn criminal legal aid portion of the legal aid bill.

It will see the number of firms representing legal aid cases fall from 1,600 to around 400 nationally through a process of auction-style bidding for the work.

Lawyers say around 150 firms in Yorkshire will reduced to just over 40, with jobs for solicitors just in West Yorkshire falling to 300 from the current 500-600.

It comes as a new survey commissioned by six Circuit leaders, including Alistair MacDonald QC, leader of the North Eastern Circuit, found four out of five people say they would be unable to pay the average cost of legal fees for a three-day trial, should they find themselves accused of a crime, and could be forced to represent themselves.

Mr MacDonald said those on modest incomes would be the losers because of a new cap on legal aid of £37,500.

He said: “Chris Grayling says these reforms are about cutting legal aid to the wealthiest individuals, but with a cap of £37,500 joint household disposable income, it will be hard-working families hit hardest.

“Many will face the prospect of having to remortgage or seek external finance in order to afford the expert witnesses, forensic specialists and new technology which are part and parcel of modern trials.

“The losers from this Bill will be law-abiding citizens on modest incomes who defend their homes against intruders, accidentally clip a cyclist in their cars, or who are simply among the many each year accused of crimes they haven’t committed.

“If Grayling gets his way, even those who qualify for legal aid will have their lawyer, potentially from G4S or Serco, chosen for them. even Eddie Stobart has said they intend to bid for work.

“The globally-renowned British criminal justice system as we know it will be unrecognisable.”

Bill Waddington, director at Hull-based Williamsons Solicitors, who chairs the national Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, said the introduction of competitive price tendering would “destroy” the criminal justice system.

He said: “The winning bidder will receive a fixed amount of money to provide services and there will be pressure to maximise profit by employing inexperienced lawyers.

“Only the most cut-throat firms will survive and these will be reduced to an astonishingly low number, eradicating small firms of lawyers who serve their local communities and understand the needs of clients, and instead creating huge, cost-driven, low quality firms.”

A spokeswoman for Leeds-based Cousins Tyrer said there would be more miscarriages or justice and more unrepresented people.

She said: “At the moment the defendant is best represented in court by the most qualified people but the financial pressures are going to be such that it will change.

“You face the prospect of a bench of lay people who are not legally qualified being advised by a court associate who is not legally qualified with the case put by an associate prosecutor who is not legally qualified and a defendant who is represented by someone of similar ilk.”